The present invention relates to a device for controlling the transfer of articles between oppositely running conveyors.
There are many applications wherein oppositely running conveyors disposed side by side and generally parallel are used for transporting articles. A common such use is in conveying accumulator systems utilized between an upstream delivery station and a downstream receiving station to accumulate or store articles when the capacity of the downstream receiving station is either shut down or run at a speed wherein it cannot handle the number of articles being fed by the upstream delivery station. Such accumulator conveying systems are well known to those skilled in the art. One particular accumulator is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,018,325. An additional prior art accumulator system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,858. With such accumulator systems, and any other system wherein articles are transferred from one conveyor running in one direction onto another conveyor running in an opposite direction, a device must be provided for controlling the transfer of the articles from one conveyor onto the other.
The present invention relates particularly to an improved transport device utilized for controlling the transfer of articles from a first conveyor running in a first direction onto a second conveyor running in a second opposite direction.